For a number of years now, various states have required the use of chains, or cables, as a measure of safety when coupling a towing vehicle with a trailer which is to be towed. In a typical hitch assembly, such chains extend from the trailer to the towing vehicle, providing a secondary coupling for use in the event of a failure of the primary coupling, i.e. a failure of the hitch mount. These so-called safety chains have proven particularly important where the coupling is temporary, such as that which is provided by a typical ball and socket hitch. These hitches, it will be understood, are specially designed to provide for selected decoupling of the towed and towing vehicles, and thus may suffer from unintentional decoupling of such vehicles while in use.
Ball and socket hitch assemblies have been characterized by a variety of configurations, serving variously to carry everything from small utility trailers (e.g., by a rear bumper hitch configuration) to large boats and campers (e.g., by a fifth wheel hitch configuration). Safety chains have found utility in many of these configurations, including fifth wheel hitch configurations where the load carried by the hitch is substantial, and the consequences of hitch failure are corresponding severe. Such fifth wheel hitches commonly mount to the towing vehicle's body, most often being secured to the bed of a flat bed truck. Other fifth wheel hitches mount to the roof of the towing vehicle, or to another vehicle body surface which will provide adequate structural support.
Because most hitches are used intermittently, manufacturers long have sought to provide a hitch assembly which detachably mounts to the vehicle, or which may easily and quickly be adjusted so to provide only minimal interference with the vehicle's use. One such hitch (manufactured by Atwood Mobile Products of Rockford, Ill.) has been provided with a retractable hitch ball, the hitch assembly being mounted above an opening in the vehicle body, and the hitch ball being retractable into such opening so as to diminish interference of the hitch with normal vehicle appearance and use. The Atwood hitch assembly, however, has not adequately addressed the need for safety chains, having failed to provide a connector to which a safety chain may be secured. It thus would be desirable to provide a hitch assembly including a safety chain connector which is retractable so as to minimize interference with the vehicle's use.